Al-Ameen Eating House (Bukit Timah)

And I'm still returning for more. Their mutton nasi briyani is so far one of the best I've had (apart from House of Briyani), while their chicken nasi briyani is not bad as well.

Another one of their best dishes would be the butter chicken; creamy and thick, it goes perfectly with naan. Mutton keema is awesome too, especially if you like chick peas. Mm mm.

Oh & before I forget! Service depends on who's serving you, if you're a regular the friendly ones will remember your face & treat you like a friend, otherwise it's of average standard I'd say.

Since this is a Indian eating house, you'd expect their roti prata to be of at least decent quality, unfortunately, the quality's inconsistent - sometimes it's good, sometime it's so-so. Usually alright though. The curry it comes with (fish head mixed w/ chicken if I'm not wrong) is pretty good though IMO.

As for their roti john, I'm not a fan of it (I prefer Zam Zam). From what I've heard from my friend, the quality is very inconsistent, but when it's good, ooh it's good. He still prefers Zam Zam too though.

I've yet to try their tandoori, but from what I can see, it looks pretty tantalizing. I'm always drawn to their briyani though, so oh well.

Also, note that if this branch is crowded (usually on weekend nights), you can always head to the nearby branch on Jln Jurong Kechil (they close at 4am, FYI, & are open in the day as well). Both branches are open-air, that means no air-con. It's reasonably breezy though if you get a spot below a fan. Prices are reasonable; they do home delivery now too (24hrs, sorta), which is great for me when I'm too lazy to go down myself heh.

Here's a bit of trivia before I end: according to my friend, it was once reported in the newspaper that Al Ameen invented the milo godzilla. And honestly, it seems pretty believable to me since their milo godzilla is the best I've had 'til now.

Al Ameen, known as a coffee shop, has renovated more into a restaurant style.

With an extensive food and drinks menu, anyone with a fussy mouth will be able to find their ideal food here.

The taste of the food is generally okay, or even better.

The service for this place is adequate as well. For a coffee shop, the service is actually promising.

There used to be places i would go when i visit the stretch of coffee shop at Bukit Timah. Unfortunately, the rest of the restaurant failed to shine. That explains the rapid extension you get at Al Ameen Bt Timah.

I've enjoyed more than i ever can, when i visited it 2 days ago, to find air-conditioning seats, clean. Effort has been made to improve their cleanliness and they have done a great job. :):)

Prices are no longer budget, but i think it is worth visiting and visiting and visiting.

I'm addicted to Indian food recently. And Al Almeen is a pretty good place for my weekly dosage of naan and butter chicken. Cheap and good. Plain naan is great with butter chicken and it costs only $1! The butter chicken is tender and worth its money. Portion is enough for 2-3 persons.

Cheese naan ($3) is pretty tasty albeit slightly oily. Chicken tikka is good too and not as salty as Al-Alzar's. Mutton masala is not bad too as the meat is tender. But it will complement rice better than naan in my opinion.

I love their teh halia too. Just the right amount of sweetness and ginger spice.

Price is reasonable as the meat dishes cost around $6-$8. Have not gotten down to trying their other food items yet, as these few dishes got me hooked.

One thing to note: Indian food is only available from 11am-2am on weekdays and 11am-3am on weekends. And they are pretty strict about the timing.

If there's a food place that you have visited since young, you'll tend to give it a better rating as the food must be pretty good to have survive so long, going back to the nostalgic place is like sugar to the tongue. It just sweetens your day.

I'm an east-side boy, but somehow, most of my schools were in the west and that was how I started visiting Al-Ameen.

Circa 2008, late night project work really gets one tummy rumbling. This outlet is one of the few that's open 24 hours, long heeding the call of the government to make Singapore a cosmopolitan and virant state. A city that never sleeps so to speak. Al Ameen has also sponsored my team's soccer jersey. So just imagine, other teams who have not heard of this outlet would think that we were sponsored by a rich shiekh! heheh!

Ok, enough of stories for now. The last time when I was at Al Ameen was after my colleagues and I had finished our work at 1am. We needed food. Where else to go for midnight supper.

Al-Ameen has a very long front - the boards displaying a wide array of food that you can choose from. The front is so wide that there are two payment counters on both ends of the outlet.

Ok, you must be shouting at me, "Wattabout the food!?" Ah...good things must wait right? Ok, I shall not hold back any further.

We had nasi pattaya and nasi goreng ayam tiga rasa or chicken fried rice with three spices. Totally gastronomical! The drinks are also something to savour - teh cino, milo dinosaur, just two of the many interesting but tasty drink that you can have.

Also, this is one place you should go if you're into "star gazing". We saw Vincent Ng having a cuppa. So YES to people watching.

Update: 10 Jan 09

My colleagues and I were there on a Saturday for dinner. I ordered the Al-Ameen nasi goreng. Cost me $6, but totally not worth it. It was this unique mix of rice and crispy noodles. But the dish seemed like leftovers being mixed together. We ordered 30 sticks of satay and also had chilli stingray, both tasted quite good. The teh cino was not too bad either.

Also, service level was marked poorer. It took us more than 10 minutes before the staff was able to serve us. So for weekends, service=5.5.

This place is quite popular for a decent meal at affordable prices. But what strikes me more is the sheer variety of food that they offer and surprisingly, all is available all the time. I mainly visit this place for a decent naan and chicken tikka masala. I will not say that this is the best, but at half the price of similar stuff at Serangoon road, this definetly provides the biggest bang for the buck. The cooks are from India and their new Indian Chinese additions are quite good. Fast and friendly service, 24hrs open, this place nicely sits between the ubiqutous prata shops and the pricier Indian places in Little India. They deliver too at any time of the day so that provides more flexibility.

From the menu, one can tell that this establishment tries to cater to all the taste palettes. I came here to try the Naan and left with a below par outcome. Personally, I found the Naan too oily though I do applaud the wide variety of curries available.

Ambiance wise, this place is always busy, more so on a weekend night. It is best to self-serve as one would be hard pressed to get any of the waiters. Some would rate it abysmal but I would think it is more due to the self-service nature the establishment is adopting.

Nothing to recommend as most of the dishes are bread-and-butter staples seen in most other Indian Mamak stores.

Sitting on a slope in the warm Singapore weather isn't my idea of a great place for a meal, but if it is on a Chinese New Year eve with most places closed, I had no choice but to come to an eatery which had a good chance of being open.

I decided to go for the set for two, which consisted of a vegetable dish ( I picked "Sambal Kang Kong"), a fish ("Sting Ray Bakar"), "Chicken Tom Yam Soup" and Fried Egg. I was a bit worried that this would be too much for the two of us given that I was not very hungry but the portions were about right.

The food overall was edible but somewhat disappointing. Starting with the "Sambal Kang Kong", I felt that it was too watery, which led to the "kang kong" being soggy. Moreover the combination with squid just didn't gell very well. I was quite excited about my sting ray as I have never had it in "bakar" form before. However when it arrived I was rather disappointed as it was just barbequed and then topped with lots of chilli. The "Chicken Tom Yam Soup" did not look presentable, but tasted nice until the bottom of the soup when one could taste the congregation of all the salt content. The Fried Egg was well, Fried Egg - how wrong can you go with that right?

One thing I noticed is their tendency to up-sell. For two of us, they tried to convince us that we should get a set for four people! I noticed they tried to do that with every table which I found to be ridiculous. Upselling of food type is one thing but trying to convince two people that four dishes is not enough is really overdoing it.

If you have a car...supper is always going to be a main attraction

at Bukit Timah, the whole stretch of Cheong Chin Nam Road is no different. So me and a staff went to try some supper at this place.

Ok, for the record, i am not a fan of vibrant loud places...reminds me too much of an army camp, therefore my rating was low...but these kind of places use this as a selling point...laughter and friendhip all around, it's hard to stay quiet. So forgive me...i'm an introvert munchie.

I like the menu...it was super extensive...it looked like it had a 1000 items at least...6 page fold. Think anythin you want you can find here...and it's halal so more friends can tag along.

Had chicken rice, hot ice cream and tea (hot & cold)

Chicken rice was fragrant and tasty...of course not your Boon Tong Kee...but very nice in it's own way. Soup was tasty too.

Hot ice-cream had strawberry and chocolate flavoured ice-cream squeezed into pockets before frying them and serve...it's a novelty...my kids might like it. Cheap though...5 pockets for $6. One pocket is like an A sized cup...go figure

tried hot and iced tea cino...no complaints.

Another place in the west for supper if you guys have nothing to do and want to mingle with your friends.

JWNY

this is a place i love.

i have been visiting al ameen for about 6 or 7 years now and i must say they have improved tremendously.

ok let me share my favourites:

Cheese prata.

the best in singapore. they use mozarella cheese, dont play play. and they put a lot. generous serving of cheese, makes the prata a little thick and shiok. ask for fish curry, and the sourness of the curry with the creamy taste of the cheese prata will make your day or night.

naan and friends.

they have great north indian food here at al ameen. their butter naan, garlic naan, all shiok. try the muttuon keema, the spinach thing which is palak paneer. it's damn good and there are generous chunks of cheese inside. thick creamy and delicious. the vegetable makhani is also very good. mix of cauliflower carrots peas onions potatoe and some other stuff. goes superb with naan or prata. but the KING is......

Chicken Tikka. the best man. tender inside, roasted to perfection outside. the red colour is nice, the charred parts crispy, the seasoning just right. comes with cooling minty sauce and vegetables. ooohh lala. i tried the same dish at muthu's curry before, along with the palak paneer. muthu's cost twice and only half the quality. i swear. meaning, al ameen is 4 times as good.

they also have a lot a lot of other food, like western, malay, and have chinese style cze cha dishes also. all damn good, and worth the price. tryt heir drinks too, teh tarik, coffee, all the cinos and dinosaurs and godzillas and all that. they even have fried ice cream and deserts. i usually prefer supper but dinner there is fine too.

oh, and their service is damn good, they really take care of their customers. how did they take care of me? wont say it here, cant actually. but ask me and i will tell you.

nice chill out people watching place. a typical singaporean relak jack kinda place. can enjoy great quality food at hawker prices.

i come here once every 2 months. sometimes more.

I've been wanting to review this place for some time now but just haven't come around to it. Let's just say this place is damn big, almost a mini United Nations headquarter. Its like four units of Thai, Northern Indian, Chinese(halal, of course), Malay, Indian, Indonesian food, money changer, sarabat stall, dessert stall, you get the picture.

Perhaps they need that much space to accomodate the names of their drinks. Try TEH TARIK CHINO ICE GODZILLA.

I've tried the tandoori chicken tikka, garlic and regular naans, pratas, murtabaks, palak paneer, aloo gobi and cheese prata. What I go back for are the chicken tikka and paneer. Not the regular items you associate with your neighbourhood prata shop. Throw in a naan or two and you'll be laughing, not necessarily about your health though.

Prepare for a wait during lunch, as it can be pretty crowded. I once waited almost an hour for the tikka. Maybe they slaughter upon orders. Sidetracking aside, this a nice place for supper as its not that crowded compared to other 24hr joints. Even if it is crowded, there's a whole stretch is other shops you can go to.

Ha.